Somewhere
in
the
US,
a
demonstration
takes
place.
The
police
arrive
and
beat
the
protesters
mercilessly.

“Don’t
hit
me,”
someone
shouts,
“I
am
an
anti-communist!”

“I
couldn't give
a
damn
what
kind
of
a
communist
you
are!”
a
policeman
answers
as he
raises
his
baton.

THE
FIRST
time
I
told
this
joke
was
when
a
German
group
visited
the
Knesset
and
met
with
German-born
members,
including
me.

They
went
out
of
their
way
to
praise
Israel,
lauding
everything
we
had
been
doing,
condemning
every
bit
of
criticism,
however
harmless
it
might
be.
It
became
downright
embarrassing,
since
some
of
us
in
the
Knesset
were
very
critical
of
our
government’s
policy
in
the
occupied
territories.

For
me,
this
extreme
kind
of
pro-Semitism
is
just
disguised
anti-Semitism.
Both
have
a
basic
belief
in
common:
that
Jews
–
and
therefore
Israel
–
are
something
apart,
not
to
be
measured
by
the
standards
applied
to
everybody
else.

What
is
an
anti-Semite?
Somebody
who
hates
a
Jew
because
he
is
a
Jew.
He
does
not
hate
him
for
what
he
is
as
a
human
being,
but
for
his
origin.
A
Hebrew
or
a
Shebrew
(to
quote
a
joke
from
Ambrose
Bierce)
may
be
good
or
bad,
nice
or
nasty,
rich
or
poor
– for
being
Jewish,
they
must
be
hated.

This
is
of
course
true
for
any
kind
of
prejudice,
including
sexism,
Islamophobia,
chauvinism
and
whatever.

Germans,
as
is
their
wont,
are
a
bit
more
thorough
here
than
others.
The
term
“Antisemitismus”
was
invented
by
a
German
(a
few
years
before
the
terms
Zionism
and
Feminism),
and
anti-Semitism
was
the
official
ideology
of
Germany
during
the
Nazi
years.
Now
the
official
German
ideology
is
pro-Semitism,
again
going
to
extremes.

Another
Nazi
word
was
“Sonderbehandlung”,
meaning
‘”special
treatment”.
It
was
an
euphemism
for
something
abhorrent:
the
killing
of
prisoners.
But
special
treatment
can
also
mean
the
opposite:
according
people
and
countries
especially
nice
treatment,
not
because
of
what
they
do,
but
because
of what
they
are
-
Jewish,
say.

Well,
I
don’t
like
it,
even
when
I
am
on
the
receiving
end.
I
like
to
be
praised
when
I
have
done
something
good,
I
am
ready
to
be
blamed
when
I
have
done
something
bad.
I
don’t
like
to
be
praised
(or
blamed,
for
that
matter)
because
I
happen to have been
born
a
Jew.

THIS
BRINGS
us,
of
course,
to
Günter
Grass.

Disclosure:
I
met
him
only
once,
when
we
were
both
invited
to
a
conference
of
the
German
PEN
Club
in
Berlin.
During
an
interval
I
met
him
in
a
very
good
restaurant.
I
told
him,
quite
truthfully,
that
I
like
his
books
very
much,
especial
the
anti-Nazi
novel
“The
Tin
Drum”,
and
that
I
like
his
later
political
activity.
That
was
all.

I
did
not
meet
him
during
his
many
visits
to
Israel.
On
at
least
one
of
them
he
acquired
a
girl-friend,
a
well-known
writer.

Now
Grass
has
done
the
unthinkable:
he
has
openly
criticized
the
State
of
Israel!
And
he
a
German!!!

The
reaction
was
automatic.
He
was
at
once
branded
as
an
anti-Semite.
Not
just
a
run-of-the-mill
anti-Semite,
but
as
a
crypto-Nazi,
who
could
easily
have
served
as
a
henchman
of
Adolf
Eichmann!
This
was
shown
by
the
fact
that
at
age
17,
near
the
end
of
World
War
II,
he
was
recruited
to
the
Waffen-SS
like
tens
of
thousands
of
others
and
then
–
oddly
enough
–
kept
the
fact
hidden
for
many
years.
So
there
you
are.

Israeli
and
German
politicians
and
commentators
vied
with
each
other
in
cursing
the
writer,
with
the
Germans
easily
trumping
the
Israelis.
Though
our
Interior
Minister,
Eli
Yishai,
may
have
garnered
the
individual
championship
by
declaring
Grass
persona
non
grata
and
banning
him
from
entering
Israel
for
all
eternity
(at
least).

Yishai
is
a
political
hack,
who
has
never
written
a
line
worth
remembering.
He
is
the
leader
of
the
Orthodox
Shas
party,
not
by
virtue
of
being
elected,
but
as
a
sidekick
of
the
party’s
strongman,
Rabbi
Ovadia
Yosef.
The
powerful
State
Comptroller
is
accusing
him
of
gross
incompetence
in
connection
with
a
giant
fire
on
Mount Carmel
and
so
his
career
is
in
danger.
Grass
came
just
at
the
right
time
to
save
his
skin.

SO
WHAT
did
Grass
actually
say?
In
a
poem
of
69
lines
–
actually
a
polemic in the guise of
a
poem
–
under
the
headline
“What
Has
To
Be
Said”,
Grass
attacks
Israeli
policy
concerning
the
atom
bomb.

The
ferocious
counter-attack
was
focused
almost
completely
on
the
axiom
that
a
German
has
no
right
to
criticize
Israel,
under
any
circumstances.

Let’s
ignore
this
“argument”
and
look
at
the
poem
itself,
not
necessarily
as
a
literary
masterpiece.

Grass’
basic
theme
is
that
Israel
already
has
a
“nuclear
potential”,
and
that
it
is
therefore
hypocrisy
to
blame
Iran
for
perhaps
wanting
to
acquire
one,
too.
In
particular
he
denounced
the
German
government
for
supplying
another
submarine
to
Israel.

Looked
at
rationally,
do
his
arguments
make
sense?

Grass
assumes
that
Israel
is
planning
a
“first
strike”
preventive
war
against
Iran,
in
which
the
Iranian
people
could
be
“wiped
out”.
This
possibility
only
makes
sense
if
Grass
assumes
that
the
Israeli
“first
strike”
would
be
an
attack
with
nuclear
bombs.
Indeed,
the
term
“first
strike”
belongs
solely
to
the
lexicon
of
nuclear
war.

It
is
in
this
context
that
he
condemns
the
German
government
for
giving
Israel
another
(sixth)
submarine
with
the
capability
of
launching
nuclear
bombs.
Such
submarines
are
designed
for
delivering
a
“second
strike”
by
a
nation
hit
in
the
“first
strike”.
It
is
basically
a
weapon
of
deterrence.

He
deplores
the fact
that
nobody
in
Germany
(and
in
the
Western
world)
dares
even
to
mention
Israel's
possession
of
nuclear
weapons,
and
that
it
is
practically
forbidden
to
“call
that
particular
country
by
name”
in
this
context.

He
then
asserts
that
“the
Atomic
Power
Israel
endangers
the
fragile
peace
of
the
world”.

To
avert
this
danger,
he
proposes
that
“Israel’s
atomic
potential
and
Iran’s
atomic
installations”
be
put
under
an
unfettered
and
permanent
international
inspection regime
with
the
agreement
of
both
governments.

At
the
end,
he
also
mentions
the
Palestinians.
Only
this
way,
he
says,
can
the
Israelis
and
the
Palestinians,
and
all
the
other
inhabitants
of
this
“region
occupied
by
madness”,
be
helped.

WELL,
I
did
not
fall
off
my
chair
when
I
read
this.
The
text
can
and
must
be
criticized,
but
there
is
nothing
there
that
demands
stern
condemnation.

As
I
said
before,
I
see no reason for Germans to
abstain
from
criticizing
Israel.
There
is
nothing
in
this
text
that
de-legitimizes
the
State
of
Israel,
On
the
contrary,
he
declares
his
solidarity
with
Israel.
He
explicitly
mentions
the
Holocaust
as
an
indelible
crime.
He
also
calls
the
Iranians
“a
people
enslaved
by
a
“bigmouth”.

That
said,
Grass’
idea
that
Israel
might
“wipe
out”
the
Iranian
people
in
a
preventive
“first
strike”
is
wildly
exaggerated.

I
have
already
stated
several
times
that
all
the
Israeli
and
American
blabbering
about
an
Israeli
attack
on
Iran
is
a
part
of
the
US-led
psychological
warfare
to
press
the
Iranian
leaders
to
give
up
their
(presumed)
nuclear
ambitions.
It
is
totally
impossible
for
Israel
to
attack
Iran
without
express
prior
American
agreement,
and
it
is
totally
impossible
for
America
to
attack
-
or
let
Israel
attack
-
because
of
the
catastrophic
consequences
–
a
collapse
of
the
world
economy
and
a
long
and
costly
war.

Let’s
assume,
for
argument’s
sake,
that
the
Israeli
government
indeed
decides
to
attack
Iran’s
nuclear
installations.
This
would
not
“wipe
out”
the
Iranian
people,
or
even
a
part
of
it.
Only
madmen
would
use
nuclear
bombs
for
this
purpose.
Israeli
leaders,
whatever
one
may
think
of
them,
are
not
mad.

Even
if
Israel
had
(or
obtained
from
the
US)
tactical
nuclear
bombs
with
limited
power
and
radius,
the
world
reaction
to
their
use
would
be
catastrophic.

By
the
way,
it
is
not
by
their
own
choice
that
Israeli
governments
have
a
policy
of
nuclear
non-transparency.
If
they
could,
our
leaders
would
brag
about
our
nuclear
might
from
the
rooftops.
It’s
the
US
that
insists
on
opaqueness,
so
as
not
to
be
obliged
to
do
something
about
it.

As
for
Glass’
practical
proposal
to
subject
both
Israeli
and
Iranian
nuclear
installations
to
international
inspection
–
I
think
this
merits
serious
consideration.
If
both
our
countries
freeze
the
nuclear
status
quo,
it
may
not
be
a
bad
idea
at
all.

In
the
end,
though,
we
need
a
nuclear-free
region
as
part
of
a
general
regional
peace
that
will
include
Israel,
Palestine,
the
Arab
League,
Turkey
and
Iran.

AS
FOR
Günter
Grass,
I
shall
be
happy
to
meet
him
again,
this
time
for
a
good
meal
in
Tel
Aviv.